New Ridge Racer for early 2005

But is it a handheld or full console game? And will it help us forget R: Racing?

Namco are currently working on a new Ridge Racer game, which will be released in early 2005. According a recent financial statement from the company, the game will be released by the end of the next fiscal year (which ends on 31 March 2005).

However, no details of the game's platform have been mentioned - which could mean that the game in question is in fact the PSP incarnation of the arcade-racer series, which we first heard about at .

The last console version of the Ridge series, R: Racing - which was released in the UK for PS2, Xbox and Cube by Electronic Arts in March - was met with an astonishingly poor critical response. PSM2 magazine event went so far as to .

It'll be interesting to see whether this new Ridge - whether it ends up being the PSP title we already know about or another entirely new console title - can recapture the series' seemingly long-forgotten former glories as king of the powersliding-fuelled arcade-racers. We'll bring you more on the title as soon as we have it.